It has been recognized in the art that the properties of aluminum matrix alloys could be improved in one or more important respects by dispersing throughout the matrix a dissimilar material having little or no solubility in the metal matrix. For example, graphite dispersed in aluminum improves the wear resistance thereof. Graphite, normally speaking, is insoluble in and immiscible with an aluminum melt and would be rejected from such a melt. U.S. Pat. No. 3,885,959 teaches coating the graphite surfaces with nickel, a metal which is wetted readily by molten aluminum thereby facilitating ready dispersal of the nickel-coated graphite particles in the aluminum melt. U.S. Pat. No. 3,985,557 discloses incorporating materials such as zircon, alumina, zirconia or aluminum silicates in an aluminum melt containing about 2% to about 10% of magnesium. The patent teaches that magnesium is a metal reducing agent for reducing the surfaces of aforementioned oxide fillers to a metal-like coating. Use of silicon carbide as a filler is not disclosed in the patent. In contrast to oxide fillers, magnesium has a lower affinity to carbon than does aluminum, and it is believed to be unexpected that magnesium reduces silicon carbide surfaces to form metallic coatings. Silicon carbide particles and fibers are difficult to wet with molten aluminum.